Camera used canon 550d iso auto lense standard canon 18-55 dont have a macro :(
shot at Brunel university in middlesex just outside london.
I was coming back from a dance performance and saw the bug on the floor,
since i had my camera i thought id take a few snaps as i knew about the comp this was prob the best.
so i guess i was a bit lucky :).
-Jason Baptiste

Equipment: Nikon D5000, AF-S 18-105 VR
Settings: 105mm, f/11, 1/250 s, sunlight
Location: Medvode, Slovenia
We were having a barbecue near a creek. There were about 10 shining blue dragonflies and a couple brown ones. They were all very timid and therefore hard to photograph.
-Janez Kos

Shot with a Canon EOS Rebel 550D/T2i and a Canon 70-200mm f/4 L lens
ISO 400
Shutter Speed 1/320
Aperture f/4.0
My friend and I went to Old Town Alexandria Va to take shots by the water, and candid street shots. After we finally found a parking spot my friend was taking his tripod out and I walked through a little museum/park that we were right next to. There was an impressive flowerbed that I stumbled upon and I knew I could get a cool bug shot for the contest if I was patient. After a minute or two I spotted this moth posing for me and I zoomed/focused as quickly as I could and I just barely caught the scene! If only I had a macro lens..
-Evan Clinton

I took this image yesterday at a park close to my home in Louisville, KY with a Nikon D200. The lens is a Nikkor 18-200mm. Focal Length 200mm; ISO 200; Aperture f/8; Shutter Speed 1/250. No flash. I have taken numerous photos of dragonflys over the past few years and I am constantly entertained when one will start "posing" for you. It really does happen if you are patient.
-Joe Hale

Just bought a Rebel xs EOS in the last 3 weeks.
I bought a telephoto 2.5 attachment instead of buying an expensive telephoto lens.
I went out to take photos of birds this morning but the flowers are full of bees, wasps and flies this morning.
I took this photo while trying to figure out the lens and if it would take a photo that wasn't blurry. (All last weeks photos were!)
I saw your contest earlier this week and so I decided that I would bug hunt while I bird watched although I was worried that i might be stung and left in a field as I don't know if I am allergic to wasps and bees and this would be an awful way to find out.
-Lesley Peabug

Nikon D40
Bellows
reversal ring
Nikon SB30 flash (connected with an off-camera cord)
35-70mm manual nikon lens
shot at f/16 ISO 200 in manual mode.
There is a large flowering tree outside my house. During peak pollination hours it hums (almost vibrates!) with bees and other various flies. I chose to photograph this guy because I liked the way his red eyes stood off of the green leaf. There were actually quite a few of these insects buzzing around and normally I would snap one or two pics before they decided I am too irritating and buzz off. This guy, however, liked the attention and let me snap away. He would turn to one side and then turn to the other making sure I had all the right angles. I decided to submit the front on version allowing you to get the most out of those big red eyes.
-Brett Streby

I took this on the siding of my house using my Canon XTi. ISO 100 F/16.
-Sally Reese

I was out looking for bugs in my backyard. Took me forever until I saw this guy posted up on the wall just waiting for me.
Zoomed in a bit and took the shot with the "extreme close-up" macro option.
Camera used: Sony CyberShot DSC-T77
-Marian Machado

My cousins own some land in Brownwood, Texas. Recently, my family and I went down there for the weekend. I shot this using a Canon Rebel. I was using a macro lens. The place was infested with bees, but I was brave enough to take this. Attached is the file.
-Ryan Hicks

Valencia, Venezuela
Camera: T2i
Lens: 18-55 mm (kit)
ISO: 400
f: 6.3
shutter: 1/1000 seg
F.L.: 55 mm
this shot was taken in Cepe, Venezuela. Is a beautiful "hidden" beach that's near of choroni. it was 9 in the morning and i was exited to go out a shoot with my camera. after a while of butterflies pictures this really HUGE bumblebee came to this garden and, fear aside, i could finally get a really long series of shots, and to me this was the nicest!
-Pedro Bracho

I wasn't planning to enter this week, I didn't know where I would find any bugs to take a picture of. I met my wife by a beach one afternoon and this guy just happened to land on a flip flop in front of me. I used my point and shoot Canon PowerShot SD750 in digital macro mode to take the picture. It has CHDK on it, but no addition features were used. I edited the photo in GIMP to remove a blurry person that was in the background.
-Adam Bean

-Taken with an Olympus Stylus 1200 in Super Macro Mode. Not edited
except for some additional blur around the edge.
This little guy (not so little in person) was flipped over on his back
and was putting up a good fight to become upright. The series of shots
I have are of his legs and head in various positions as he fought like
a warrior. But alas, he finally stayed still for a good 10 seconds for
me to take this shot that complimented his coloring and near perfect
symmetry of his legs while he was taking a break. As a thank-you, I
flipped him back over so he could carry out the rest of his bug life
in the paradise that is the Republic of Panama.
-Alyson Paige

Camera info:
Nikon D-90
18-105 kit lens
105mm
f:10
ISO:200
S:1/80

I had actually found this rather large dragon fly at work on friday, just on the ground, standing there. At first, I thought it was dead but had to make sure, so of course, I touched it and it started fluttering it's wings much to my surprise. It looked like it was just old dying because it wasn't flying anywhere.It was in the middle of the ground where people pull their cars in; with this weeks challenge in mind I had to act fast, especially since I didn't have my camera on me and was heading to the lake house of my girlfriend's rather upper class family after my ridiculously lower class job. So, I ran to my locker and grabbed a piece of paper just to let the bug stand on and not freak out too much as I moved him around.
-Christopher Guerci

A friend of mine and me are regular gizmodo readers. We often saw the shooting challenge, and often we said we'd participate. But until this one, we never did. The bugs challenge was pretty interesting, since we both like macro photography. So we figured, we'd go to our local botanical garden, since there are a lot of plants and flowers there, so we'd likely find some bugs.
When we arrived we found out it was just 40 minutes before closing, and it was crazy hot. So we had only 40 minutes, and this is the best picture I took that day
-Lengwiler Marius

This shot was taken at a pond in Pembroke, MA. I was hiking around the pond when I saw this dragonfly perched on a flower. I was able to get about 12 inches from him and he remained perfectly still as I snapped away. It was almost as if he wanted to be seen by the gizmodo world!
Camera: Canon 7D
Lens: Canon EF 100mm F/2.8 L IS USM
ISO: 200
Shutter Speed: 1/30
F-stop: 7.1
-Luke Salyer

Device: Nikon D90
Lens: Nikon/Nikkor 50mm 1:1.8
Exposure Time: 1/250 sec.
ISO: 500
I used a lens adapter ring and flipped an old all manual 1968 50mm optic I had. While this gave it an incredibly small DOF, it did let me get up close. You lose your ability to focus when the lens is on backwards so it took a few shots moving the camera in and out to get the subjects body in focus. I increased contrast and vibrance in PS.
-Joseph J Pfister

I stepped outside in to my backyard and found a Dragonfly that was more than cooperative - he (she?) even flashed a few smiles.
This was shot on a Rebel T2i with a 50mm/1.8 shot @ 1.8 - with just a little boost in saturation in post.
-Jody Vining

I found this elegant lady between the window and screen of my kitchen window on Wednesday at my home in North GA. What luck! She didn't seem to mind the paparazzi, but I didn't move her as not to press my luck. In case you couldn't tell, this lovely gal is a Southern Black Widow.
For this shot, I used my Canon EOS 550D, Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM lens, and a tripod. Settings: ISO 200, f/5.6, 1/80, and set the lens on macro at 135mm. Cropped the picture using Aperture 3.
-David Holmes

Before this photo I trying to get some pictures of bees on the white flowers in my garden. As I walked back into the darker, more shady area of my backyard, I forgot to reset the shutter speed so the original photo was a lot darker, but thanks to photo shop I could lighten it and give it the interesting grainy look. The fly was on our blue laundry line, with the nice green backdrop from the tree.
-Bronwyn

People at work saw this bee at parking. When I came close to take a shot the bee climbed my boot.
I used my IPhone 3GS, which I don't have anymore - a thieve took it from me.
To ampliate, I used a small magnifiyng glass (from a swiss army knife) close to the iphone lens.
This site is the best
-Aloysio

This shot was taken with my EOS 7D, equipped with a EF 100 USM Macro. f/6.3, and shutter @1/1600.
I was at a local nursery when I noticed this busy bee.
-Jude Hall

This photo was taken at my cousin's house with my Nikon D5000 and my cousin's 55-200mm lens.
-Billy Wanamaker

There is no need for a macro lens if the bugs are big enough! This fishfly was about 2" long! Taken with my Olympus E-P2 and my vintage Pen 40/1.4 lens at f8 to get enough depth of focus.
Camera: Olympus E-P2
Lens: Vintage Olympus Pen 40mm f1.4
Shutter speed: 1/100 s
Aperture: f8
ISO: 200
-Matt Johnston

I used a Canon EOS DIGITAL Rebel XT with 1/2500sec. exposure time. This shot was taken in Palo Verde, Costa Rica. I was in Palo Verde taking a biology class and ouf field experiment included feeding Lynx spiders (the green wrapped up blob) to Argiope spiders (the striped leg spider). It was definitely the most interesting experiment I've been involved with to date!
-Hilary Bultman

Point and shoot, I didn't change the picture much, just erased some dirt away from the cats fur.
Story behind the photo:
I'm a very beginner in photography (as you may noticed) and this was a lucky strike as normally the bug or the cat is faster (mostly the bug). But this time the cat became his inevitable fate - unfortunately the bug is dead, eaten by this cat.
-Sandra Felger

"Shlurp!"
Caught this guy mid-snack! Love the Odie tongue!
Shot with in RAW with an Olympus E-520 using a 50mm OM Zuiko lens and 4/3:OM adapter, ISO400, 1/15sec with no flash. Can't be sure about the aperture, but I'm guessing an f/4.0. Developed using LightRoom.
-Julie Urban

I shot this photo with my Nikon D40x, 18-55 lens (shortest focal length lens I own), I didn't catch what f-stop I used. I was shooting a picture of a preying mantis, also submitted to this contest by Jon Alvarez, and this bee landed on my bay window like he knew I was looking for bugs to take pictures of. I backlit the bee with an exposed bulb and got this shot in manual focus mode - couldn't get it to focus correctly in autofocus I really enjoy the depth of field which resulted.
-Adam Dickens

-Dennis Cutter

This photo of a bee on fireweed was taken with my Nikon D80 with a 18-200mm lens. The fireweed kept swaying in the wind so I set the focus to manual and just shot it when it got to the right spot.
Exposure Time: 1 / 200
FNumber: 8
Focal Length: 200
ISO Speed Ratings: 100
The second photo I attached (IMG_0054.jpg) isn't for the contest per se... Just for posterity I tried to do this week challenge with last week's cell phone requirement, and that was the result, taken with my iPhone 4. The iPhone 4 has a pretty good Macro lens.
-Isaac Chambers

Nikon D5000
1/60
f/5.6
ISO 100
55 MM focal point
Cropped the photo a little bit
My wife bought me this camera a few days ago. I wanted a dSLR but I was in the fence about them. I would eyeball the SLRs every time that we went to the store. So she got it for me (lucky me).
On my way to the backyard I spotted this little guy inside the garage on top of some wood.
-Saul Vasquez

This was taken with a cheap Canon A3000IS point-and-shoot in Auto mode above the Kravica waterfalls in central Bosnia and Herzegovina. There were hundreds of these little guys flying all around. This was the best-focused shot I could get, because the wind was blowing the grass.
-David Reynolds

Sony DSC-W180
ISO 100
f/5.4
1/320
I went out to a lake behind my friend's grandparent's house and shot hundreds of pictures of various bugs so it was a difficult choice, but every time I looked at this picture I was noticing something new about it.
-Aaron Lovell

Spider Zen
Equip: Canon Rebel XS, f/5.6, ISO-100
Setup: Just taking pictures on my back porch. I didn't really expect much out of this picture but it surprised me.
-Justin Fidone

PANASONIC DMC - ZS1 1/1300s
Focal length: 4.1mm f / 6.3
35mm equivalent: 25mm ISO 1600
Macro Mode ( no flash ).
Warmify and Saturation effects.
I took this picture in Brasil, it was around noon in my mum's garden.
I would call this bug ladybird ?? But it is green....
-Yvy

taken with a 50D, 100mm macro lens, 1/1000 shutter speed, and 5.6 f/stop. i realized that its a pain to take pictures of a dragonfly when its extremely windy, and the fact that they kept on moving away every time i got close, finally after spending about 15minutes standing in the same spot, one stopped moving and i was able to get it, i took a bunch, i liked this one the best, the orange and blue were nice.
-Justin Mudrack

Canon 7D, 100mm macro lens
ISO 3200, f/22, 1/100 sec
Lit tracing table under a bowl on the bottom, two flashlights on top.
I found this in my sink, and it reminded me to participate in the Gizmodo challenge. Thanks, spider!
- David Lee

This little guy walked right into my friend's house while we were working in it. Both being frequent Gizmodo readers, we quickly thought of the Shooting Challenge and grabbed a camera. After snapping a few pictures of it on the wall, we decided to take some while holding it to give the picture some depth. It was running up his arm and then stopped to pose for this shot. I haven't seen a Praying Mantis in years; we got lucky that one walked in this weekend.
Nikon D40, Stock Lens, Macro Settings
-Jon Alvarez

A butterfly on a butterfly bush. Imagine that. This was taken with an
Olympus E-PLT. Simply using the macro setting
-Kay Owens

I took a walk out to one of the public gardens here in Madison to get this photo. I used my Canon 7D with the 28-135mm kit lens. Settings were ISO 400, F/14, 1/250, and the on camera flash was used as well. I don't have the scratch for a macro lens, so I simply zoomed in as far as I could using the garden of flowers for my back drop. It took me a couple minutes of chasing this particular butterfly to get the shot I wanted (As well as a considerable amount of sweat due to the humidity).
-Branden Kerr

Taken with a Canon 5d Mark II and Sigma 70-300mm lens at 300mm at ISO1600, f/13 and 1/160sec. I was looking around for any bugs to photograph in the evening and saw this little guy just relaxing in a bush. I took a few photos and noticed a bee buzzing around but after a few (many) failed attempts with the bee (would not stop moving, low light issues) I noticed the beetle had not moved. I took a few more photos, playing around with the aperture to get more of the beetle in focus and finally got what you see here.
-Winnie Tsui

Nikon D40
18-55mm kit lens
10x macro filter
ISO-200
f/18 at 1.8 sec
While opening my sliding glass door to let a cool breeze in this fella flew onto the screen. It seemed as though he felt the breeze and wanted freedom but was trapped behind prison bars. Luckily once he hit the screen he was pretty still and so all I need was some time to setup my tripod and remote and shoot away.
-Todd Wiechens

Went for a walk and found this little guy.
Taken with a Panasonic FS12.
f/2.8
1/200
iso 80
-Jana Molnarova

Camera: Canon Rebel XT
Lens: Canon EF 75-300mm Telephoto
ISO: 400
f/7.1
Exposure: 1/400
I'm allergic to bees, but decided that if I could get a decent shot, it would be worth the threat of a sting. Lucky for me, I was more interested in it than it was in me. I was also pretty far away from it, so I'm still a scaredy cat.
-Joe Huber

Technique:
I'm very much an amateur, so there wasn't much techique to what I was
doing. Made sure my back was to the sun, dropped the shutter speed to
1/800, don't even know if my focus was off, since the depth of field
at that point was vary narrow. I didn't even get to stalk my prey,
per se, since I didn't even realize it was sitting on the flower until
after I had taken a few shots. (Yes, I think it's time for me to check
my prescription)
-Billy Chan

I don' t have a good lens for my cannon so I backed down to my Nikon d70. With a X4+X2+x1 adapter to boot. Really lame considering I love macro photography. What is a good macro for the Canon 7D?? I know I should just go for a Canon but the cost deters me. Again, lame after getting a 7D. It was a close call whether I used this photo or of a spider that looked like a walker from Half life 2. I am happy with this photograph but I am dying to get a real macro for my canon. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. My guess is that there will great entries for this weeks contest, can't wait to see them.
-David Lantz

Shot with a Canon XSi and a Tamron 180mm macro.
ISO 400, F/9, at 1/200.
Hand held and with natural light.
I had gone on a walk and had found numerous smaller dragonflies that were nice but not very photogenic. Then finally, I saw this guy flying around and so I stalked him until he landed on a limb and I managed to get this shot of him.
-Steven Saldana